The Abacha template might be one to look at again, with respect to setting up a dedicated Banking Malpractices Tribunal, given the critical place of banking in the economic development and the refusal of our bankers to live up to the requsite billing. We need such a Tribunal to save banking from the hands of bank ‘owners’ and their friends…
As I ruminated the other week over the N21 billion Cosmas Maduka-Ifeanyi Ubah-Access Bank fiasco, one of the intriguing things that stood out for me, was the ease with which money made its way out of the system, in defiance of conventional credit guidelines and corporate governance protocols put in place for banking transactions, especially when it is director-related. As well-meaning as Dr. Maduka might have been, there was little doubt, from the story he told, that he was in breach of the guidelines and he would still have been, even if things had gone well. Unfortunately things didn’t go well, leaving a hole of N21 billion in the books